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40

My mother called me this morning and as she wished me a happy birthday, she reminded me that 40 years ago, it was snowing heavily outside the hospital as I was being born. This seems quite unusual, but it seems to snow on significant birthdays… 13, 16 (which I was not happy about since I had to wait an additional week to get my driver’s license), 21 (fun times at Gardner-Webb), 30 and as I’m typing up this blog post reflecting on my 40th birthday, it’s snowing outside.

This past year has been good, although it’s been full of challenges. I’m thankful that God’s strength and stability through the trying times over the past year, which have kept me sane in times of chaos. Professionally, I’ve been challenged by working through two significant renovation projects (they don’t teach you this in divinity school) which are almost completed. I’ve been blessed by the teenagers of my church, who are more mission-minded than anything else, and it showed during our mission trip to Washington, DC this past summer. My role has changed slightly as I will be responsible for the education ministry of the church, so I’m looking forward to putting some focus into that side of ministry this year.

Personally, I’ve been focusing more on my health. I joined the local YMCA on a whim a few months ago, and have been trying to work out three days a week when I can. I can tell that it’s helping, because I feel the best I’ve felt in a long time. I’m also working on my cooking skills more and hoping to expand my repertoire in 2018. In following up from last year’s post, I’m still wanting to focus more on gaining experiences instead of stuff and wanting to simplify things. “Creating margin” is my phrase for this year, and I’ve taken some steps over the past few weeks to begin that process.

I’ll probably write some more about this another time, but I can certainly say that the first forty years have been an exhilarating ride, and I’m looking forward to what the next 40-50 bring.

One more thing… leading up to today, I kept thinking about this rant by Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy. I hope you enjoy.